A Disaster Preparedness Christmas Poem

The Night After The Earthquake by Sheila Sund, MD

‘Twas the night after the earthquake, and all through the town
all the people were helping with nary a frown.
The bolted up bookshelves and chimneys still stood.
Who knew earthquake proofing would work out so good?

The children were nestled in sleeping bags and sweats
While next to them snuggled their dear rescued pets.
And Dad in his work boots and I in white coat
Were resting a moment and reviewing our notes.

When suddenly around us, there arose such a clatter!
“It’s only an aftershock”, I said. “It won’t matter.”
We hit the floor, rolled under the table.
Drop, Cover, and Hold – whenever you’re able.

We emerged from our tent to the quiet moonlit night
and waved to the neighbors – “everything is all right”.
When what to our volunteer teams should appear -
a supply laden helicopter and a fresh stash of gear.

And a National Guard pilot, so well-trained in his job,
I knew he would land in our field with no prob!
He rapidly touched down; his team – out they came.
They grabbed boxes and equipment and called us by name

“For CERT team, for Watch Captain, for your MRC.
Here are your supplies. What else do you need?”
I replied that our med team wanted transport for three
Dash them to the hospital – surgery I foresee.

As dry dust from debris piles around us did swirl,
the helicopter took off, its rotors awhirl.
We paused for a moment as further they flew,
then I turned to the rest – “We’ve got work to do!”

So then in a twinkling, we returned to our chores,
taking care of the wounded and organizing our stores.
I drew in a calm breath, and then looked around,
amazed with the successes our planning had found.

Our CERT Search and Rescue checked all houses on foot
Helping pets and the people despite dust, dirt, and soot.
Our Neighborhood Watch collected all seniors and tots,
bringing them to safe places in pre-prepared spots.

Our doctors and nurses were acting quite merry
They felt well prepared and no longer were wary
of emergency field treatment, in rain, or in snow.
Triage, advanced first aid, IV meds – these they know!

All the power was off, all the water was gone,
But generators, radios, and lanterns worked on.
We had food stores for weeks – no hungry bellies!
Even treats for the kids, like strawberry jelly.

We may not be chubby and plump when we’re through
But we still should be healthy, thanks to our planning crew.
We can’t drive or use phones, but that’s nothing to dread
We communicate our needs via radio instead.

I return to command, resuming my work,
when the world starts to spin and I awake with a jerk.
It was only a dream! I’m at home in my bed!
There wasn’t an earthquake. It was just in my head.

I sprang to my desk, typed this up with a whistle
attempting to rhyme it in this strange epistle
Now I beg of you all, before saying adieu,
Start preparing today, and my dream could come true!

Sheila Sund, M.D.
Disasterdoc.net
Marion County Medical Reserve Corps

Tis The Season

In the spirit of the holiday season, I would like to take the time to say thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers here at the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps, it has been a wonderful year, and we sure have accomplished a lot.  None of it could have happened without you, so again, from all of us at the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department, THANK YOU!

Nothing could have reminded me how wonderful our volunteers are, more so than this past Thursday.  For various reasons, the PHSS staff could not be there to host and run our annual meeting, but because of our wonderful volunteers, that did not slow us down one beat!  We had some volunteers who stepped up to the plate, and took on the responsibilities for the meeting.  From what I hear, it could not have gone any better.  But that is what emergency preparedness is all about, to be there when others can’t, and to deliver under pressure.  I can say we have some exceptional people in our organizations and I am proud to be a part of it.

Our General Meeting was the last “planned” MRC event for the year.  So I would like to take a short look back on the 2012 year.  We have accomplished a significant amount this year, and I thought I would share with all of you some encouraging statistics.  The Thurston County MRC participated in 30 events over the course of the year, which consisted of training, outreach, or large community events such as all those vaccine clinics over the summer.  With those 30 events, we have 1,167 total volunteer hours (that does not even include all the planning for these events)!  That is almost a 400 hour increase over last year!  That is 1,167 hours of community events and public health preparedness that we never would have been able to do without each and every single one of you, our volunteers!

So take some time in this holiday season to give yourself a pat on the back, as we look back on the 2012 year, and as we prepared for what 2013 has in store for us.  I hope 2013 will be a great as you all made our 2012 out to be!

Our First Featured Volunteer: Roxanne Cobb

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.  The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. – Helen Keller

Everyday there are heroes, those visible such as soldiers, police officers, firefighters, doctors and nurses.  But there are also those who are not so visible, everyday people as everyday heroes.  That is how I see our volunteers in our MRC unit, all of you volunteer your time to help better our community, whether it is giving vaccine to people who could otherwise not receive it, providing first aid at community events, or even just training to be better prepared for a disaster or emergency. 

One of my intentions of creating this blog is to feature one of our volunteers every month.  We have so many wonderful volunteers, and it might be hard for all of you to get to know each other, and I thought it would be great to highlight one of our volunteers a month.

With that, I would like to present our first featured volunteer, Roxanne Cobb!  A lot of you might already know Roxanne, as she is very outgoing and has quite the personality!  She has also dedicated a significant amount of hours to our MRC this year, and even some to the Mason County MRC.  She put in roughly 130 hours for the Paddle to Squaxin event, working at the First Aid Clinic in Nisqually, Burfoot Park, and Swantown Marina and for a week at the Squaxin Island Tribe.  She has also been quite the vaccinator this year, participating in all but a handful of our vaccine clinics.

Roxanne got involved with the MRC to give back to the community, but to also keep her hand in nursing.  Roxanne worked for Providence St. peter Hospital for 30 years as a Registered Nurse specializing in Neuro Nursing.  “I thrive on helping.  I am very blessed with good health, a wonderful husband, great friends and a loving family.  There is nothing better than helping someone without wanting anything in return.  The smiles and thank yous are enough.”

Roxanne was born in Ritzville over in Adams County Washington, the fourth child of five.  She eventually went on to Walla Walla Community College for her nursing degree.  Her husband Rich, is a civil engineer and has retired 3 times from state and city jobs, but still works part time managing property in Lacey and Canada for a Hong Kong firm.  Roxanne has three daughters (Teresa, Penny, and Shannon) and three granddaughters (Alyssa, Piper, and Ashlyn).

Even in her golden years of retirement, Roxanne likes to keep herself busy.  She has a huge garden that she likes to care for.  She loves to read “anything that doesn’t move too fast”.  She also loves needlepoint, cross stitching and quilting, making personalized bags using fabrics that show off the owner’s hobby or interests and has made over 300 bags!

Roxanne has also acquired quite the travel bug.  She has recently returned from a 10 day trip in Panama spent on a catamaran with 21 passengers and 10 crew members.  “The Panama Canal is so impressive, especially knowing it was built 100 years ago and still functions perfectly.  We were dwarfed by the Canal and the humungous freighters and cruise liners.”  Not too long after returning from her trip to the Panama Canal, she began preparing for another trip to Hawaii, “I get spoiled on my birthday.”  In April she will be spending two weeks in Italy attending her exchange students wedding.  She has also spent 13 days paddling down the Grand Canyon.  She has been on numerous white water rafting trips, flown around Mt. McKinley in a helicopter, spent a month in Australia, visited Belize and biked a week around Amsterdam.

Roxanne’s favorite MRC experience has been “working 130 hours in the first aid ten during the Paddle to Squaxin.  It was a wonderful learning experience, very moving and spiritual.”  Although Roxanne spends quite a bit of time with us, and between her various hobbies and travel, she still has time to be a member of the P.E.O. a woman’s organization that raises money for women’s scholarships.  “This summer, 72 women dressed in pearls, hats and gloves come to an outdoor tea party at my house to help celebrate our chapter’s 100^th birthday.  We provide two $1000 high scholarships every year.” 

Roxanne has quite the busy live if I do say.  It has been quite interesting to learn more about her as one of our volunteers on a deeper level than just through the MRC.  I will be reaching out to another one of volunteers next month, so who knows it could be one of you!

Influenza Countermeasures from a virus point of view!

Hi. I'm Enza, a flu virus, and I can only live vicariously through other living things.  My ancestors may have started out infecting birds or pigs, but my favorite companions are the human kind, especially kids.  Kids help me spread very easily because they are always touching things and putting their hands in their nose and mouth.

Once I get going in your area, I can spread like wildfire.  Every person I infect can manage to infect at least 3 other people before they figure out that they are sick with the flu.  I try to get into a kid first, and then I know I can spread to other kids in school, at the playground, to mom and dad, the babysitter and even grandpa and grandma.  Getting started before the holidays is great, because there is so much traveling, visiting and kissing, and less time to pay attention to washing hands.

Sorry I make you feel lousy for a few days, but that is the way I get around.  By the time your body figures out I am in you and starts fighting me off, it has been 3 or 4 days and I have already gotten a lot of mileage from you.

I am a lot smarter than you think because I figured out how to change just a little bit so that my baby viruses can infect you again next year and you remain clueless.

There is one thing that I cannot tolerate…the flu vaccine.  Ouch, that vaccine is the death of me each year!  The vaccine helps your body recognize that I am not welcome and starts fighting me off before I get a chance to set up house.  How rude!  Where would I be if everyone got the flu shot and I do not have anyone left to infect.

Another thing that scares me is when you cover your mouth when you cough.  If you cover your mouth with your hands, I get to spread out on the next thing you touch.  I wait around to hitch a ride with someone new.  Now if you cough into your sleeve, like I saw some school kids doing, I don’t get to spread out!  Icky sleeves, but that is NOT helpful for my free ride to someone new!

Washing your hands!  What were you thinking?  Washing hands gets rid of me, the flu virus, and protects you from getting infected by my friends and family.  And I thought you were my friend!   Please keep this a secret between us.  If everyone washes their hands, I will have a hard time hitching a free ride.

Whhhaaaaa.......  Here comes Yu know who.... RRruuunnn!

Doctor Yu says cover your cough, wash your hands, stay home when you are sick and get a flu shot when it is available.  This will prevent influenza from spreading...... Wwwwaassshhhh so long little virus!

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhyayaiiii....

 

Diana T. Yu, MD, MSPH

Rekindle the Fire

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!

It is time to rekindle the fire, our motivation, for the response efforts of this summer have passed, and as our unit is in some "down time" this is an excellent opportunity to get back on track with some "old business". 

I am generally not one to dredge up the past, in the months before on the onset of the Pertussis Response efforts, our unit was in the middle of transition.

We were looking to the future, the future of our database and volunteer management systems we have in place.  We are fortunate here in Thurston County to have an excellent State of Washington Department of Health, with which we have been able to work very closely with.  Our contact (wow that sounds very Watergate-esque) at DOH has put a lot of work into a new program called WAserv (Washington State Emergency Registry of Volunteers).

To put it simply, WAserv will allow local system administrators (DOH) and volunteer managers (Your wonderful MRC Coordinators) to efficiently identify, activate, and deploy medical and support volunteers during disasters. It also functions as a communication tool for providing volunteers with information about training and exercises.

So far in the past, we have been using a variety of tools to accomplish what WAserv will in one convenient place. Around April of 2012 we had a large push to have our volunteers register on the site, and had a fairly successful time of it.

However, we have only had about 56% of our volunteer base register on the site.  it is our hopes to have all of our volunteers register on WAserv, as this will allow us to do a better job of serving you!  Trust me it will!  We have been involved in a myriad of work groups, exercise and trainings with Waserv to work out all the kinks, and have much better system to show for it

So I ask for all of you who are a member or a potential member to go here: https://www.waserv.org/ and register today!  If you already have an account, this might be a good time to log back in and update your information or to check out the changes that have occurred in the system.

I you have any questions, you can go here, or contact your MRC representative today!

MRC Summer Events Recap

As the rain pounds the roof outside and the winds whips the tree branches around, it make me long for summer with warm, dry, weather and the plethora of activities that the Medical Reserve Corps participates in.  So as the rain continues to come down, I thought I might brighten this dreary day with a recap of the summer events that the MRC participated in.

Pertussis Response Vaccine Clinics

When the MRC was activated to support the Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Department in May, little did we know that we would be providing such an overwhelming response to the Pertussis Epidemic in Washington State.  We began with our first clinic on May 19th hosted here a the Health department.  We saw over 100 people come through our clinic to receive their Pertussis vaccine, and I do not think it could have been more successful.  I guess neither did the health department, as they began to lay plans for us to participate in more clinics. 

Our very own Dr. Yu and two our our MRC volunteers took their show on the road and headed up to Nisqually to provide Pertussis vaccine at a community event.  We held our next clinic out at the annual Yelm Prairie Days festival where we had a booth and dispense vaccine out in the community.  The Nurse Family Partnership (a great program here at the Health department) asked us to put on a small clinic for its members in June.  We held another clinic at the Union Gospel Mission on July 19th, which happened to be during Lakefair, and we were able to send out a team to dispense vaccine out at the fair.  That wouldn't be the last fair we were seen at dispensing vaccine, we even managed to sneak our way into the Thurston County Fair if you could believe it giving our shots on the opening and closing day of the fair.

The fair ended our Pertussis only clinics, as our vision for our clinics changed, and we began to plan for  Back to School Vaccine Clinics.  We held these clinics in three consecutive weekends with the main focus of delivering required vaccine for children for school.  However, this did not stop us from continuing our Pertussis response efforts and "sticking" the parents too!

Paddle to Squaxin:Tribal Canoe Journey

We really got lucky this summer by being asked to be part of such a spectacular event.  The Paddle to Squaxin was not in our original summer events list, but when we were asked to participate, how could we say no? 

The Paddle to Squaxin is part of a Native American event that has been going on for the last 20 years or so, where the tribes of the Northwest paddle from their homes to another tribe and have a week long festival.  I am sure my summary did not do this event justice, but just imagine, over 100 canoes carrying roughly 15 people in each canoe landing on the shore in the Port of Olympia, with over 10,000 spectators, and you can just imagine the grandeur of this event.

We took this as an opportunity to train, and we stood up first aid tents at the main landing site, but also the soft landing (the pre-landing site if you will) and provided first aid to the paddlers and the spectators.  you could just imagine the blisters that were seen, some of these paddlers have been going at it for over a month!

With the Canoes landing on the shore, they made their way to the Squaxin Island Tribe where they continue on with there week long festivities.  During the week long event some of our volunteers staffed the first aid clinic out there to provide support for the overwhelming number of people congregating in the Squaxin Island Tribe.

These are just two of the major events, that the MRC participated in this summer, check back regularly as I will continue to post of the happenings of the MRC, there are always more raining days in the future!

Welcome to the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps

Welcome to the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps blog!

We will try to update you on what is happening with the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps on a regular basis, but first, here is a little overview of the Thurston County MRC.

The mission of the Thurston County Medical Reserve Corps is to allow local health professionals and others to voluntarily contribute their skills and expertise to provide public health surge capacity.

Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a community-based volunteer program that strengthens and expands the local public health system's response during a health emergency or disaster.  Members include medical and non-medical professionals who contribute their unique skills and expertise to prepare for and respond to health emergencies.  The Thurston County MRC is one of over 800 nationally recognized Medical Reserve Corps units. Thurston County MRC members have assisted in a range of health emergencies that include response to local flooding and H1N1 influenza pandemic.

For more information and how to join visit our main website or find us on Facebook!